“With extensive experience in public management and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, Joaquim Levy leaves the World Bank’s finance directorate to join the economic team of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro,” Guedes said in a statement.

Levy joined the World Bank Group in February 2016, according to the institution’s website. He had previously served as Brazil’s finance minister under former leftist president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in August 2016 for illegally using money from state banks to bankroll public spending.

The World Bank and BNDES declined to comment. (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier Writing by Gram Slattery Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Rosalba O’Brien)